UDR Collusion Exposed; Not Only Brits Covered Up

IRISH NATIONAL CAUCUS
PRESS RELEASE

UDR COLLUSION EXPOSED
AND NOT ONLY BRITS COVERED-UP

CAPITOL HILL. WEDNESDAY, MAY 3, 2006 ---"We have been saying it
on Capitol Hill for over 30 years. And it is important to stress
that it was not only the Brits who covered-up".

That is how Fr. Sean Mc Manus, president of the Capitol Hill-
based Irish National Caucus, reacted to the dramatic reporting of
the Irish News on the how the Ulster Defense Regiment (UDR) -- a
locally recruited regiment of the British Army -- colluded with
loyalist paramilitaries, helping them to assassinate Catholics.
Fr. Mc Manus said: "The Irish News has done a great service to
the truth by its expose of UDR collusion, and on how the British
Government knew all about it".

In its ongoing expose the Irish News reveals : "The 'Subversion
in the UDR' document was written in August 1973 by military
intelligence and Ministry of Defense officials ... The document
is a summary of a meeting where the prime minister at the time,
Harold Wilson, and his secretary of state for Northern Ireland
Merlyn Rees, brief the leader of the opposition, Margaret
Thatcher, on political and security matters ... a key section on
the security situation confirms that Downing Street was aware of
the UDR subversion and reveals additional concerns over the
RUC... Unfortunately there were certain elements in the police
who were very close to the UVF and who were prepared to hand over
information, for example, to Mr. Paisley..." (Files confirm
suspicions .Collusion: Subversion in the UDR Reports: Steven
McCaffery s.mccaffery@irishnews.com IRISH NEWS. WEDNESDAY, MAY 3,
2006)

In recounting his efforts over the years to expose collusion by
the security forces, Fr. Mc Manus explained: " In 1977, I met
with Tip O' Neill, House Speaker from 1977 to 1987, and briefed
him on collusion by security forces. He said he had checked it
out with the Irish and British embassies and that both denied
there was any truth in it.( O'Neill as Speaker absolutely forbade
all Congressional Hearings on human rights violations in Northern
Ireland -- a policy strongly backed by both Embassies).

In 1975 I met for the first time a journalist( now dead) who
later on became well known on both sides of the Atlantic. He
had a special interest in Loyalist paramilitaries. When I told
him the UDR was complicit in the killing of Catholics he erupted
in real bitterness and accused me of fronting for the IRA.
In 1979 I briefed a very prominent writer for the New York Times
about RUC/UDR collusion yet his front-page story was about false
accusations that the Irish National Caucus was linked to the
IRA.I tried to get the famed liberal journalist Mary Mc Crory to
write on the UDR. She said she had checked it out with Sean
Donlon -- Irish Ambassador to the US, 1978 to 1981 -- and she
wouldn't write about it.

Even John Hume never publicly raised the issue when he visited
the US, certainly never before the IRA cease-fire in 1994. That
is one of the major criticisms I've had of Hume."

In one of its articles, the Irish News gives the following
report : "NATIONALIST communities who believed security forces
were conspiring with loyalists demanded that their elected
politicians raise the alarm.

But now two sets of documents reveal - for the first time - how
questions on paramilitary crime inspired 'sterile' political
answers.

Frank McManus was elected MP for Fermanagh and South Tyrone in
1970, having successfully stood as a nationalist 'unity'
candidate.

In August 1972 he asked a parliamentary question of the minister
for defense, and a written record has emergedŠ Mr. McManus, who
still works as a solicitor in Fermanagh, said he asked his
question against a background of concerns over the UDR.

Surprised to hear of the file's existence, he said it was clear
that important information had been kept from him.

"Everyone knew that there was collusion and of course the
government was always at pains to cover up," he said yesterday.

"A number of very close friends of mine were killed and it was
common knowledge that it was men in uniform who did it."

He added: "Technically the answer I received is, in some
respects, correct but the real point is that they were concealing
the essential parts. They wanted to conceal it." (Politicians
kept in the dark Collusion: Subversion in the UDR Reports: Steven
McCaffery May 3, 2006)

The Frank Mc Manus mentioned here by the Irish News is a brother
of Fr. Mc Manus. Said Fr. Mc Manus, " Is it any wonder I've been
constantly going on to Dr. Reiss, Special Envoy for Northern
Ireland, about collusion by the police and security forces in
Northern Ireland, and how the British government covered it up --
just like how the FBI colluded in the KKK's attacks on Dr. Martin
Luther King and the Black Freedom Struggle".

END